


A Valiant Trip

by LadyZoZo



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Doctor/Master - Freeform, Doctor/TARDIS - Freeform, F/M, Kinda sad in places, M/M, Thirteen/Master, Thirteen/Ten
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-11
Updated: 2019-08-11
Packaged: 2020-08-18 22:14:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20199028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyZoZo/pseuds/LadyZoZo
Summary: The Thirteenth Doctor's TARDIS lands in the Year that Never Was and the Doctor runs into an old friend.





	A Valiant Trip

The Doctor darts around the TARDIS console, desperately trying to calm the manic ship. Sh’d not even been in the console room when the entire ship had shaken and the engines had gone manic. Now she was trying to fix whatever the problem was.  
She starts to fiddle with some of the controls when the room jolts unexpectedly and knocks her to the ground.  
“Oh come on old girl.” The Doctor complains, using her hands to push herself back up. “You couldn’t fly through the vortex just a fraction smoother could you?”  
In response to this, smoke blows from part of the console, the engines wheeze rapidly and the whole room trembles violently.  
Almost falling back onto the floor, the Doctor groans and grabs the rim of the console, using it as support to stay up.  
The Doctor goes to press the fast-return switch to stop this madness but, with one last jolt, the TARDIS lands.  
After checking that everything is stable, the Doctor tries turning on the scanner.  
Nothing.  
“Well if you’re going to be like that we’ll just leave.” The Doctor huffs, twisting some of the controls.  
As she went to reset the coordinates, the orange glow of the crystalline console room dies down, stranding the Doctor in darkness.  
“Oh.” She remarks. “That can’t be good.”  
The Doctor tries some more controls. When that doesn’t work she tries whacking the console.  
She sighs and leans her elbows against the console, face in her palms. “No come on, you’re not dead, I’d know if you were dead. I would sense that. No... something else is draining your power. But what…”  
One of the police box doors at the front of the ship slowly creaks open, letting in a very small amount of light.  
“I knew it.” The Doctor grins, patting the console. “Don’t worry, I’ll go and find out what’s draining you and then I’ll make sure it stops. Back in a jiffy.”  
Grabbing her coat on the way out, the Doctor steps outside the TARDIS and looks around the new environment.  
The TARDIS had landed in a corridor. Nothing new there then.  
The odd thing was, the corridor seemed almost recognisable to the Doctor. She couldn’t quite figure out what it was but there was something about it that sparked something deep in her mind. Something familiar.  
“Probably nothing.” She mutters to herself. “I’ve been in so many corridors I’m bound to find a few that look the same. Lets just ignore it and find whatever it is that’s keeping the TARDIS here.”

After about twenty minutes of aimlessly walking through the corridors of what she assumed was a spaceship, the Doctor finally found a door that looked promising.  
Only problem was, it had a guard on either side of it.  
The Doctor quickly took a few seconds to think of a plan before walking around the corner and approaching the guards.  
They aim their guns at the Doctor. As one of them starts to form a question, the Doctor whips out her psychic paper and says, “Access all areas. Let me in.”  
The guards look at each other, nod, and open the door.  
The Doctor stared in awe at the sight before her. Behind the door was a storage cupboard. But it wasn’t any old storage cupboard. Inside it was the TARDIS.  
Dread filled the Doctor as she approached the TARDIS, carefully placing a hand on the door handle. She was hoping she was wrong about where she was but every cell in her body was telling her that they were right.  
With a short second of hesitation, the Doctor pushed open the door and stepped inside the TARDIS.  
It was immediately obvious that this wasn’t the TARDIS that she had arrived in. This one was from way back in her own personal time stream. However that wasn’t the worst of it.  
The walls and lighting in this desktop theme should have been bright orange but instead they were a dark red, indicating danger. The normally bright console unit was a fiery yellow colour and had a range of clunky machinery drilled into it. It was also surrounded by an intimidating metal frame that was unnaturally welded into the floor, as if it were imprisoning the console.  
“The Paradox Machine.” The Doctor says, not daring to breathe. “I’m on the Valiant. Oh I have to get out of here.”  
The Doctor turned to leave but quickly remembered that she couldn’t. Something was still draining the TARDIS’s power and… oh.  
“It’s you isn’t it.” The Doctor says solemnly, turning back to the core of the Paradox Machine. She takes a few steps towards it and rests a hand on the cold, metal frame. “I’m so sorry but you have to stop. You can’t keep draining yourself of power, it’s never going to work and you’ll only end up stuck on this ship again later on.”  
A very faint wheeze echoes through the room and a small amount of steam blows out of the frame at the Doctor.  
“Oh but you can’t can you, you poor thing. Not while the Master has you in his control. You don’t have enough power to stop your own automatic systems.”  
The Doctor sighs and rests her head on the frame. “I’m going to have to speak to him. I was almost hoping I wouldn’t have to.”  
With a rather exasperated sigh, the Doctor turns around and starts walking back outside the cannibalized TARDIS.  
Just after shutting the weary wooden doors, she smiles up at the police box and give the side of the machine a small stroke. “It is going to get better soon. Me being here is proof of that.”  
After giving a loving look at the machine, the Doctor turns back around and leaves the storage cupboard.  
“Right.” She declares to herself, moving out of earshot of the two guards. “I think I remember the way.”

The Doctor spends the next few minutes walking through the corridors of the Valiant. Now that she knew where she was, she was practically gliding through the corridors of the sky-ship, making her way towards the Master.  
The sound of a familiar song hit the Doctor’s ears.  
Don't say maybe maybe  
It's supernatural I'm coming undone  
The Doctor prepared herself for the sight of their old friend before pushing open the door to the room where’d they’d spent a year as a prisoner.  
They stepped into the bright room and was greeted with the sight of the Master putting on his black jacket and jumping down the entire flight of stairs at the end of the room.  
The music abruptly stops at the line Here It Comes The Sound Of Drums and the Master pulls back the entrance of the all too familiar tent and grins hugely. “I have something for you. Come on”  
An elderly Time Lord in a pinstriped suit and brown trench coat crawls out of the tent and lifts himself up onto his feet. “Whatever it is, I don’t want to see it. Not after what you showed me the last time.”  
The Doctor winced. The Master had made him watch a lot of horrible things happen to people or places during his time on the Valiant. It wasn’t pleasant being back here.  
Although saying that, the Doctor couldn’t help but smile at the sight of the Master. It had been so long since the colony ship, she still had no idea if the Master - either of them - had survived long enough to get down to their TARDIS. Admittedly this was not the reunion that the Doctor had hoped for, if this counted as a reunion.  
“Oh but this is so much better than last time.” The Master grins, grabbing the other Doctor’s arm and turning round to lead them to the table. “Oh just wait what I’ve got for-”  
Oh.  
He’d seen her.  
The Doctor stared back at the Master, their eyes locking from across the room. A lifetime of memories came flooding back with a single glance, old emotions rising and new ones appearing from nowhere.  
“Who are you?!” The Master asks sharply, walking the other Doctor towards the table and forcing him into a chair. “Well?”  
The other Doctor looks at the Doctor with weary eyes. “Do I know you?”  
The Doctor smiles and steps further into the room. “Yeah I suppose you could say that.”  
“Um, excuse me grandpa, but I think it’s me who’s doing the talking.” The Master shoots a look at the other Doctor. “So shut it. Now, I’ll only ask this one more time. Who. Are. You?”  
“Oh come on, you know me Master.” The Doctor grins, walking closer to him.  
The Master sighs and reaches inside his jacket. “I warned you.”  
Now with laser screwdriver pointed at her face, the Doctor stops walking when she was about six foot from him. “You’re smart, figure it out. You won’t shoot me, I know that for a fact.”  
“Oh you do now?” The Master raises an eyebrow. “Are you trying to get yourself killed.”  
The Doctor shrugs. “Maybe. Wouldn’t be the first time you’ve killed me. Or even the second for that matter.”  
“Who the hell do you think you are?” The Master asks.  
“Who do you think I am?” The Doctor asks.  
“I think you’re starting to get on my nerves.”  
The other Doctor’s mouth opens for a second but then he grins and winks at the Doctor.  
“Ah see, they get it.” The Doctor gestures at her past self. “Hello Doctor, long time no see.”  
The other Doctor starts to speak but the Master shushes them and steps towards the Doctor. He gets close to her face and mutters the words, “If you don’t tell me who you are right now I will-”  
“What? Kill me? You already said you would and you didn’t. See? I told you wouldn’t. Besides, why kill me when we could just have a reasonable conversation instead.”  
The Master takes a step back and looks at the person in front of him properly for the first time.  
“Doctor?” He asks, his threatening demeanour melting away.  
“Hello.” The Doctor grins. “Took you long enough.”  
“You regenerated.” The Master notes, looking her up and down.  
“I thought that was a bit obvious.” The Doctor remarks.  
“And you’re a woman now.”  
“So I’ve heard.” The Doctor remarks. “But I’m afraid I’m not here to chat.”  
The Master grips the laser screwdriver a little tighter. “Have you come here to stop me?”  
The other Doctor looks to his future, a tiny spark of hope in his tired brown eyes, desperate to be freed from his current position.  
The Doctor looks back at her past, a short look of sorrow passing over her face, before looking away from them and back at the Master.  
“No. I’m here by accident.”  
The other Doctor’s face drops slightly. He obviously knew that she wouldn’t have been here for him but still, it didn’t hurt to hope.  
“But surely if… you’re free then that means…”  
“It doesn’t mean anything.” The Doctor shuts him up but gives very quick wink at the other Doctor, giving the hurt Time Lord a bit of that hope they’d been looking for. “But I do need something from you.”  
The Master raises an eyebrow. “Oh really?”  
“Yes. The Paradox Machine. Turn it off.”  
The Master laughs. “And why should I do that? Assuming that you’re from this one’s” he jabs a thumb at the other Doctor, “future, you know what it’s doing. Why I made it.”  
“Yes I do and I can’t say I ever stopped being disgusted by it.” The Doctor snaps. “But as much as I hate to say it, I’m sure you can find a way to only turn off the parts that I need turned off. You see, my TARDIS had a bit of a dodgy landing and accidentally ended up back in it’s own time stream. Which would be fine normally, I can fix that easy. But the other TARDIS, your Paradox Machine, is in so much pain, and she’s so low on power, that she’s draining my TARDIS of all it’s power and because she’s so weak, she can’t stop herself from doing it.”  
The Master gives a small chuckle. “So you thought you would come and ask me to turn off my Paradox Machine like a good little boy so you can run back off? I think not. You see Doctor, the only thing you’ve told me that I care about is that there’s a fully working TARDIS right on board this ship, ripe for the taking. And to make it even better, I don’t even have to fight you for it because I have you right where I want you. Twice!” The Master laughs maniacally and shoots the Doctor in the leg with his screwdriver.  
The Doctor gasps and fall to the ground, clutching the edge of the table for support. “Master, listen to me, my TARDIS cannot work with that Paradox Machine. You’re making a mistake!”  
The Master scoffs and looks over at the other Doctor. “What do you think old man? Is this other Doctor telling the truth? Should I let her go and run around the universe again?”  
“It’s like I already said.” The other Doctor says calmly, staring at his nemesis in the eyes. “You’re making a mistake.”  
The Master’s grin disappears and he glares at the other Doctor.  
Whilst the Master was looking the other way, the Doctor reaches into her pocket and draws out the sonic screwdriver. After making sure that the other Doctor had seen what they were doing, she slid it up their sleeve and out of sight.  
The Master turns around and grabs the Doctor’s hand, pulling them back up and pushing them onto the chair next to the other Doctor. He then steps between the chairs and and addresses both Doctors.  
“Neither of you are going to escape. Don’t even think about it, you’re both incapable of moving on your own so let's just skip past that part and get on with your new lives as cellmates.”  
“Master you can’t keep us both here.” The other Doctor says. “If our time lines are crossed for too long-”  
“Aren’t you forgetting something?” The Master asks rhetorically. “The Paradox Machine will sort all that out. I can keep you both here and not have to worry about a thing. Oh and speaking of worrying about things.” The Master thrusts his hand inside the Doctor’s coat pockets, checking each one for the sonic screwdriver.  
“No screwdriver?” He asks.  
“Nope.” The Doctor replies. “I gave it away.”  
The other Doctor smiles very briefly. The Doctor had handed him the screwdriver under the table a few seconds ago so she technically wasn’t lying.  
“Fine. I must admit I was rather hoping for a second sonic screwdriver in my collection but I suppose it saves me the effort of finding somewhere to put it.” The Master steps away from the table and grabs a microphone from inside his jacket. “People’s of the Valiant, please listen closely.”  
His voice rang through the entire ship, reverberating off metal walls and drilling into the ears of the people on board.  
“As you all know, I have had the Doctor as my prisoner ever since I took over this miserable rock. Well now I have another one. This Doctor may look different but trust me, it’s the same person and if I see anyone try to help either of them in any way I will execute you without a second thought. No exceptions, no second chances, no warnings. That’s all for now.”  
The Master pockets the microphone again and rushes back over to the Doctors. He bends his knees a little and leans against the table so he was at eye level with the Doctor and sighs. “You know, I was rather hoping that one day you would join me. Stand with me as we rule over the universe together, just the two of us. But the fact that you’re even here proves that that’ll never happen. Don’t try and walk, your legs are paralyzed. Permanently.”  
The Master grins at the Doctor before jumping back to his feet and rushing out of the door that the Doctor had entered through.  
The Doctors look at each other.  
“Well this wasn’t what I expected.” The Doctor admits.  
The other Doctor stares at her. “How long has it been since this happened for you? How long since you last saw him?”  
The Doctor sighs. “Too long.”

**Author's Note:**

> I shall do the next chapter at some point in the future. I don't know how soon though because my attention span is really short. The Master will probably be more in character in that one


End file.
